The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-11-18
THE COMMERCIAL rRAvrLER.
rseeh,nx = rt.,h psumm,f courte,y,

THE COMMERCIAL TRAV4LER.
Tsaehing q Frssh Drummss Courtesy.
ssrhere IL "A unwrstten code a.
ethics among commercial travelers,'
said an old white haired s.lnigat ofthe
grip" to q Bee reporter yesterday,
...that is considered. ..as binding
upon each and every one - Though
oath was made to obey IL In every
particular. This law is known as pro-
fessional courtesy" By It I mean
that no traveller shall take, or seek to
take any unfair advantage Of . brother
salesman In the same line. One Of the
greatest acts Of discourtesy that one
commercial man can show TO another
is to interrupt him while talking witha
custo ner. 1t is a rule. never broken
by experienced men, to silently await
their turn in case the buyer is engaged
with ono of their own craft. To a
young salesman, making his first trip.
this law is not imperative, but they
usually learn to respect it before they
reach the end of their trip"
''HowP Why, the "ooys" turn COM
me1cial pedagogues and their teaching
consists entirely of object lessons. At
ter a youthful aspirant to drummers'
honors takes one lesson a second one
is rarely necessary. remember once
about three years ago in ST. Louis I
was showing my samples to the dress
goods buyer in William Bars. I was
booking a nice sale and had my Gus
toner just in tho proper frame Of mind
TO place a large order, when who
should come in but a young dude ten
derfoot,' and walking up to my man
presented his card and commenced
talking up the fine line of laces his
house was handling. I was hot enough
to consign him to a certain place where
no ice salesman will ever be found.
He was finally informed that the lace
buyer would not be in until the follow.
ing day, and after leaving his card the
youth took his departure. Now, moth
ing is SO disastrous to a salesman, es.
pecially when he is selling q line of
specialies, as an interruption, and 1t
proved 80 in this case. My customer
had had his mind taken away from the
subject I had got him interested in,
and instead Of q very large order l re-
ceived a very small one, and had hard
work to get that"
"l went back to my hotel vowing
vengeance, and, by lingo, I got it that
very night. I told several of the old
boys about it, and we concocted a
scheme that worked to perfection.
1t was this: One of the boys-Billy
Price-made it a point to got ac-
qlainted with Rice-that was the
':ude's name and informed him that
tho lace buyer at Bars had returned
and would be over ut the hotel that
night. He told Rice that he would in.
tloduce him, but added that Smith
the buyer-was a man of very conviv-
ial habits and if O salesman didn't IN
vite in his friends and keep wine flow
ing his name would be .Dsnnis,' sure.
But he assured Rice that If he did the
square thing he might expect a dandy
order. Well, Rice took it all IN and
said that his house had told him to
spare no necessary expense and that he
would do the thing up brown.
"Along about 9 o'clock that night in
comes Gregg with IN old travelling
chum. and introduced him all around
as MIR. Smith, of William Barr's. He
had no sooner got seated than Rice be-
gan to talk laces and finally asked
Smith up to look at his samples.
Smith was apparently reluctant to go
ut first but finally consented and VIC all
Eight of us-marched up to Rice's
room. No sooner had we got there
than he ordered up q half dozen quarts
of CliquoJ and a box of Reina Victorias
which we discussed before Smith got
ready to look at the goods. Pretty
soon Smith got interested and after a
short talk placed an order for
about $1,000 worth of Vallenciennes.
On the strength of this Rice ordered up
a half dozen more quarts, and when
an hour later Smith selected 200
pieces of Honiton, valued at $l2, 900,
Rice was so elated that he ordered o
fine supper for eight. Well, VIC kept
1t up until .Smith'had placed orders for
nearly $40, 900. and by that time the
whole crowd was pretty well filed up,
and l had the proud consciousness OF
knowing that 1 was even with the dude.
Rice's bill was about 800 for the
night"
..Smith told him to come over to the
store in the morning and MIR. Barr
would sign the order. Then we went
down and got to bed and slept the sleep
of the just, but not before I had writ.
ten Rice a letter Informing him of tho
trick and the reason of its being played
on him. I met him about a year ago
and he told me that it was the best
lesson he ever received. Some way or
other his house got wind of it and the
only sympathy he got from them was,
served you right"
Mrs. Cleveland's Popularity.